Educational Science

10 species our population explosion will likely kill off

Intro Mekong giant catfish. On or around October 31, 2011, the human population will reach the 7 billion mark, according to projections by the United Nations Population Division. Over the years, as our numbers have increased, the populations of the Earth's other inhabitants has steadily decreased; many species have even...

Alzheimer's May Be Transmissible, Study Suggests

In some cases, Alzheimer's disease may in fact be the result of an infection, and may be even be transmissible, a new study in mice suggests. In the study, mice injected with human brain tissue from Alzheimer's patients developed Alzheimer's disease. The mice developed brain damage characteristic of Alzheimer's disease,...

Where Art & Science Intersect (Image credit: Christophe Gissinger, Princeton University Art of Science Competition)Princeton University's annual Art of Science exhibition explores the interplay between science and art, with each piece in the exhibit revealing those moments of discovery when what you perceive suddenly becomes more than the sum of...

Why Arnold's Self-Statue Is Very Serious. Really.

Photographs of former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger grinning next to a self-commissioned, larger-than-life bronze statue of himself in his body-building days may be eyebrow-raising, but social scientists say that Schwarzenegger is simply following a trend laid down by thousands of years of human history. It's the kind of thing that...

Mark Your Calendars: End of World Coming Oct. 21, Camping Says

The radio preacher who predicted Judgment Day on May 21 has not backed down from his claims that the end of the world is near, despite the lack of a Rapture or world-devastating earthquakes leading up to the doomsday. In an announcement on his Family Radio Network website, Harold Camping...

Why Rescue Missions from Antarctica Are So Hard

In most places, when you have a stroke you get sent straight to the hospital. But things get trickier when you have a stroke in the middle of the Antarctic ice sheet. Renee-Nicole Douceur, the manager of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, suffered a stroke in August. She remains at...

'Dumb' Neanderthals Likely Had a Smart Diet

Instead of Neanderthals being dim-witted hunters who only dined on big game, new findings suggest they had more balanced diets, with broad menus that may have included birds, fish and plants. Neanderthals are currently our closest known extinct relatives, near enough to modern humans to interbreed, with Neanderthal DNA making...

The Hidden Potential of Autistic Kids

When I was in fifth grade, my brother Alex started correcting my homework. This would not have been weird, except that he was in kindergarten—and autistic. His disorder, characterized by repetitive behaviors and difficulty with social interactions and communication, made it hard for him to listen to his teachers. He...

Seeing Double: 8 Fascinating Facts About Twins

Science Times Two Twin girls sit in a park eating. (Image credit: Alexander Gitlits | Shutterstock)They are often difficult to tell apart and can use this fact to their advantage, tricking everyone from parents to teachers or dates. Besides pulling pranks, twins have a lot to tell us about human...

What Do Neutrinos Have to Do With Climate? Not Much

The recent discovery that particles called neutrinos might be traveling faster than light has shocked physicists, but also led some to draw dramatically wrong conclusions, experts say. In particular, they point to a Wall Street Journal op-ed writer who used that finding, in part, to call the completely unrelated field...